The Presidential Selfie Is A Much Bigger Deal Than People Realize

Yesterday when the media became fixated on the fact that
President Obama, David Cameron, and the Prime Minister of
Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, took a selfie, I jokingly asked
in the office whether this was going to be a two-day story or
three-day story.

Well, it wasn't a joke. The Presidential selfie at Nelson
Mandela's memorial event dominated much of the media, and
realistically there will probably be more tomorrow.

The AFP photographer who took the photo, Roberto Schmidt,
wrote a
great blog post about how silly the controversy is, noting
among other things that this wasn't a funeral, and that it fit
very much into the festive mood of the event.

Schmidt is right that the controversy is dumb. But Presidential selfies
are actually a much bigger deal than people realize for two
reasons.

First,
they tell us about the nature of selfies. Why do people
take selfies? It's probably for the same reason that I used to
take notes during class in high school and college. I have always
had horrendous handwriting so there was no chance I could ever
read my notes to study. But I had the sense that just the process
of writing stuff down probably helped me absorb the lecture even
more.

There were
probably any number of people around who could have come by and
taken a very nice portrait of Obama, Thorning-Schmidt, and
Cameron. Surely the official White House photographer Pete Souza
could have come over and told them all to say "cheese." But that
would have robbed them of the chance to do an action themselves,
and directly connect to the moment.

This doesn't
just explain selfies, it explains all kinds of social media: Why
do people tweet the same story that everyone else is tweeting?
Why do people take Instagrams of their meals, when everyone at
the table is taking the same picture? Why do people check in at
venues on Foursquare? People want to commit an act that
registers something in their mind confirming that they were
there.

More importantly, the Presidential selfie reveals
something about the nature of power. People who are in
power tend to speak in a really grandiose terms about the
tremendous honor and awesome responsibilities that have been
bestowed on them by shareholders or voters. And probably most
leaders do feel that. But the other thing that leaders must be
thinking all the time is: "Holy crap, how did I get here!?"
Obama, Thorning-Schmidt, and Cameron are three of the most
powerful people in the world. Obama and Cameron have instant
access to the bomb. And yet here they were at this amazing event,
signaling that it just doesn't get old. Being around powerful
people in historic moments is awesome, and you want to do
something to make it permanent in your mind.

One photo
yesterday explained much of social media and also the mindset of
the powerful. This was a big deal.